LTE Band 5 / Why doesn't the iPhone 5 work on O2 4G?

[Anonymous]

The unlocked UK model of the iPhone 5 (the one I have, and the one that you get buying direct from Apple) is GSM model A1429, which according to Apple's iPhone Tech Specs page has the following frequencies:

UMTS/HSPA+/DC-HSDPA (850, 900, 1900, 2100 MHz)

GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz)

LTE (Bands 1, 3, 5)

So my model has LTE band 5. Now if you look at LTE bands here:

http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/lte-long-term-evolution/lte-frequency-spectr...

You can see that band 5 sits within the 800 mHz range, which is exactly where I thought O2' 4G bandwidth was.

So I'm not quite getting why it doesn't work on O2?

[Anonymous]

I'm surprised not more people have picked up on this.  And I'm still not entirely clear if the 5S from Apple will actually work with O2 4G - I spoke to a (very nice) person at O2 CS who is in the same boat and just as cross that her new(ish) iPhone 5 won't be 4G compatible.

And it looks like the fortunate few who have the funds to pay upfront will have to pay more to buy from O2 than the Apple Store!  https://www.o2.co.uk/shop/phones/#brand=Apple&showAll=true  £600/699/769 instead of £529/599/699 from Apple.  Anybody knows why this is?

[adamtemp64 · Accepted solution]

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@Anonymous wrote:

So my model has LTE band 5. Now if you look at LTE bands here:

http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/cellulartelecomms/lte-long-term-evolution/lte-frequency-spectrum.php

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But o2 has bought 800mhz band 20 the european standard and not band 5 usa standard.

Your link will show the differance

[adamtemp64]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I'm surprised not more people have picked up on this.  And I'm still not entirely clear if the 5S from Apple will actually work with O2 4G -

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If the rumors (facts from 10th sept) are correct the new iphone will be a world wide lte capable handset covering all adopted frequecies

band 5 usa band 20 eu etc

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/smartphones/1296784/iphone-5s-specs-release-date-price-rumours just one site with the rurmord spec

[Anonymous]

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@adamtemp64 wrote:

But o2 has bought 800mhz band 20 the european standard and not band 5 usa standard.

Your link will show the differance

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Thanks Adamtempo. Does O2 have a webpage anywhere that shows the tech specs for their frequency bands?

Or, even better, is there a webpage that shows which UK carriers are using which bands of LTE? And which handsets do/don't work on each?

Average consumers really shouldn't be having to do so much research into radio frequencies really.

[adamtemp64]

all compatable phones have 4g next to them on the o2 shop now

o2 do not have the bands and frequencies but ofcom set them for the uk

2g is on 900 and 1800 mhz 3g is in 900mhz and 2100 mhz and uk 4g is  800 band 20 these are the frequencies ofcom has allowed o2 to use.

[Anonymous]

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@adamtemp64 wrote:

all compatable phones have 4g next to them on the o2 shop now

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Fair enough, but there are a lot of people like myself and Vox who don't buy the phone from the network, we buy outright ourselves and choose flexible sim-only tariffs so we can chop and change networks as often as we want. So an independent place to compare phones, frequency bands and networks sounds like a good idea to me.

Anyway, i think I'm gonna switch to EE on a 30-day plan and see how it goes. Can always change back to O2 next month if I decide it's crap. And I don't even have to change my phone number. Aint modern life great

Seems a shame that even though a chunk of the 800mHz spectrum is allocated to mobile Ofcom are only allowing certain bands. Seems like there's no real reason why the other 800-range bands (eg band 5) can't be opened up here too, but never mind. Thanks for the info.